THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
tips; inner-webs of fliglit-quills dark brown margined with white; tail hair- 
brown with pale edgings to the feathers, more broadly at the tips; sides of 
breast black with white margins to the feathers ; chin and throat white with 
irregular dark spots and hair-like tips to the former ; middle of breast white, the 
feathers narrow and lanceolate in form ; abdomen, sides of body, thighs and under 
tail coverts greyish-white with dark shaft-streaks to the feathers ; axillaries and 
under wing-coverts dull white more or less streaked with pale brown; under¬ 
surface of flight-quills hair-brown with buffy-white margins and pale shafts to 
the feathers ; lower aspect of tail greyish-brown with buffy-white margins to 
the feathers ; bill light slate-blue, feet light blue-grey, eyes light brown. Total 
length 206 mm. ; culrnen 15, wing 113, tail 103, tarsus 26. Figured. Collected 
at Gilgandra, New South Wales, in March, 1910. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature male. Crown of head, hind-neck, sides of neck, mantle, and upper-back 
greyish-white with a ferruginous tinge on many of the feathers and a blackish 
pear-shaped spot on the middle of each feather; rump and upper tail-coverts 
pale ferruginous; upper wing-coverts pale brown tipped with pale ferruginous on the 
lesser and median series and margined with the same colour on the major coverts 
wluch forms a wing-bar ; bastard-wing and primary-coverts blackish-brown narrowly 
fringed with pale ferruginous ; flight-quills blackish-brown with pale margins both 
on the outer and inner webs ; tail dark brown with pale margins to the feathers, 
becoming ferruginous at the tips; sides of the hinder-crown greyish-white; ear- 
coverts white with dark streaks; a dark streak from the lores which extends to 
below the ear-coverts where it is more pronounced; throat and entire under¬ 
surface greyish-white, somewhat darker on the breast on the sides of which some 
of the feathers have dark shaft-lines ; under wing-coverts and margins of flight- 
quills below whitish, remainder of quill-lining greyish hair-brown ; lower aspect 
of tail similar but much paler. Collected at Moree, New South Wales, in November, 
1898. 
Young birds are practically like the adults, allowing for immaturity. 
Nestling. “ Has the general colour above fulvous-brown with brownish-black centres 
to the feathers, those on the nape, hind-neck, and sides of the neck having whitish 
margins ; upper wing-coverts and quills dark brown, broadly margined with fulvous 
at the tips ; tail-feathers fulvous until brown centres ; all tbe under-surface white 
with narrow brown shaft-streaks on some of the feathers on the breast.” (North.) 
Eggs. Three to four eggs form the clutch, rarely five. A clutch of three eggs taken on 
“ Cambo Cambo Station,” on the Moonie River, in North-western New South 
Wales, on the 16th of November, 1911, is of a very pale pinkish or warm white 
ground-colour, minutely spotted and speckled with numerous markings of reddish- 
brown and purplish-grey, and becoming more closely set together at the larger 
end of each egg. Long ovals in shape ; surface of shell smooth and rather glossy. 
23 mm. by 16. 
Nest. A beautiful deep cup-shaped structure, composed of grasses and small roots, very 
neatly woven together with a cotton-like substance, sheep’s wool, and often many 
Emu feathers are very carefully worked into the sides of the structure. Lined 
with grass and hair, and sometimes feathers. Generally placed at the extremity 
of a hanging branch of a Forest Oak (Casarina sp.) or Wattle (Acacia sp.), etc. 
Dimensions over all, 4 inches by 41 inches deep, while some are slightly larger. 
The egg cavity is 3 inches across by 7 nearly 4 inches deep. 
Breeding-months. August to December. 
300 
